http://news.boxun.com/news/gb/china/2008/08/200808012142.shtml

On Eve of Olympics, Due to International Pressure, Chinese Communist Party Unblocks Sensitive Websites Including Voice of America, Radio Free Asia, BBC, Chinese Wikipedia, Etc.

As the Olympics opening approaches, foreign reporters have found that they are unable to connect to many politically sensitive websites from inside the Beijing Olympics Media Center. This development has exposed a tacit agreement between the International Olympic Committee and the Beijing Olympic Committee to keep Beijing's internet firewall in place and applicable to foreign reporters. There has been a big international uproar over this. President Bush met with five Chinese political activists in the White House Wednesday July 30, and expressed dissatisfaction that Beijing was going to continue to strictly censor the Internet for foreign reporters during the Olympics. Boxun reporter Jin Wang was surprised to discover on Friday August 1  that in knuckling under to international pressure, the Communist Party had already unblocked Voice of America, Radio Free Asia, BBC, Wikipedia and other sensitive websites and web pages. The reporter did not use any proxy software and successfully logged into these sites. It is still not clear whether this was a temporary oversight by China's Internet censors, or whether it would last through the end of the Olympics or represented a permanent liberalization. This event demonstrates that international pressure combined with the Olympics has resulted in the Communist Party acceding and allowing more open media access, thereby honoring the right of China's people to receive uncensored information and exercise their free expression.

Websites that have been unblocked include:
http://www.voanews.com/chinese/
http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/china/
http://zh.wikipedia.org/